A high-performance ceramic composite anode for protonic ceramic fuel cells based on lanthanum strontium vanadate

• Instead of nickel, the LSV was used in the composite anode for PCFC.
• The composite anode for PCFC having the LSV, CeO2 and Pd can be fabricated at 973 K.
• The protonic ceramics enabled better electrode performance than the YSZ.
• The LSV-anode performed better than the LSF-cathode at low temperatures.

The composite electrodes for protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFC) were fabricated by infiltration of (La0.8Sr0.2)FeO3−δ (LSF) cathode and (La0.7Sr0.3)V0.90O3−δ (LSV) anode into a porous protonic ceramic, Ba(Ce0.51Zr0.30Y0.15Zn0.04)O3−δ (BCZY-Zn), respectively. Further, Pd-ceria catalysts were added into the composite anode. In the same method, the oxygen ion conducting fuel cells with the yttria-stabilized zirconia as an electrolyte (YSZ cell) were also fabricated. At 973 K, the non-ohmic area specific resistance (ASR) of PCFC (0.09 Ω cm2) was much smaller than that of the YSZ cell (0.28 Ω cm2) although the protonic conductivity of BCZY-Zn was slightly smaller than the oxygen ion conductivity of YSZ. According to the analysis of the symmetric cells with BCZY-Zn as an electrolyte, the LSV-composite anode showed better performance than the LSF-composite cathode at low temperatures.